With Historic Paris Climate Agreement Adopted, Ship Emissions Fall in IMO’S Court

With no express reference to transport within the historic local weather deal unanimously adopted by nearly 200 nations in Paris this weekend, it’s now as much as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to chop greenhouse gasoline emissions from a sector which ranks among the many world’s largest contributors of carbon dioxide emissions.

The a ultimate deal, often called the Paris Agreement, was agreed to on Saturday after two weeks of around-the-clock negotiations involving delegates from 195 international locations on the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) held in Paris. The goal of the settlement is to maintain a worldwide temperature rise this century nicely under 2 levels Celsius and to drive efforts to restrict the temperature enhance to only 1.5 levels Celsius above pre-industrial ranges.

The final text of the Paris Agreement contains no express reference to worldwide transport, which based on the IMO accounts for two.2% of earth’s man-made CO2 emissions.

The transport trade has largely welcomed the Agreement, however stakeholders have additionally acknowledged that work should proceed on the IMO to additional cut back worldwide transport’s general CO2 emissions as a part of the worldwide effort to mitigate the impression of local weather change.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), representing the worldwide transport trade all through the United Nations Climate Change Conference, says it “greatly welcomes” the Paris Agreement and reiterates that the transport trade stays dedicated to formidable CO2 emission discount throughout the whole world service provider fleet, lowering CO2 per tonne-km by not less than 50% earlier than 2050 in comparison with 2007. ICS asserts that dramatic CO2 reductions from ships will solely be assured if additional regulation continues to be led by IMO.

“I am sure IMO Member States will now proceed with new momentum to help the industry deliver ever greater CO2 reductions, as the world moves towards total decarbonization by the end of the Century” commented ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe.

ICS says it plans to interact in meaningfully in discussions on the IMO in the course of the subsequent assembly of the Marine Environment Protection Committee in April 2016, the place ICS plans to debate risk of agreeing a CO2 discount goal for transport.

Prior to the Paris negotiations, the ICS had hoped that any deal would come with acknowledgment of the significance of IMO in persevering with to develop additional CO2 discount measures.

“CO2 is a global problem and shipping is a global industry,” added Hinchliffe in a press launch issued Monday. “IMO is the only forum which can take account of the UN principle of ‘differentiation’ while requiring all ships to apply the same CO2 reduction measures, regardless of their flag State. Unilateral or regional regulation would be disastrous for shipping and disastrous for global CO2 reduction, whereas IMO is already helping shipping to deliver substantial CO2 reductions on a global basis.”

The same sentiment is held by European shipowners, represented by the European Community Shipowners’ Association, which additionally welcomed the Agreement and is now calling on stable motion on the IMO, referencing the specialised United Nations’ company as “the appropriate international body to address greenhouse gas emissions from ships engaged in international trade”.

Specifically, the ECSA (and ICS for that matter) wish to a see a worldwide information assortment system of CO2 emissions from ships.

“Following the adoption in 2011 of measures to increase the energy efficiency of the industry, the agreed next step is a global data collection system of CO2 emissions”, stated Patrick Verhoeven, Secretary General of ECSA, in a press release launched Monday within the wake of the Paris Agreement. “The governments in IMO will resume discussions on such a system in April next year, with the aim of ascertaining the real contribution of international shipping to global CO2 emissions. We strongly encourage all parties to ensure that these discussions lead to the establishment, as soon as possible, of a mandatory data collection system.”

Critics, then again, have stated that the absence of transport (and aviation) from the Paris Agreement casts doubts over who’s answerable for reining in emissions from the 2 transport sectors, which collectively account for an estimated 8% of worldwide CO2 emissions, and undermine the prospects of conserving world warming under the 1.5°C goal.

“The Agreement now leaves it unclear which actors have responsibility to reduce emissions from these sectors. If [International Civil Aviation Organization and IMO] wish to retain a role, they must urgently scale up their ambition. Otherwise states and regional actors will have a right to adopt measures to ensure these sectors contribute to the 1.5°C target,” commented Andrew Murphy, Aviation and Shipping Officer for Transport & Environment, a inexperienced NGO and one of many extra vocal proponents of together with the 2 sectors within the any local weather deal.

So now it’s as much as the IMO the resolve on rules regarding greenhouse gasoline emissions from ships, a job during which it has acknowledged wholeheartedly.

“The absence of any specific mention of shipping in the final text will in no way diminish the strong commitment of IMO as the regulator of the shipping industry to continue work to address GHG emissions from ships engaged in international trade,” commented IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu in a press briefing launched Monday titled “Full speed ahead with climate-change measures at IMO following Paris Agreement”.

In the briefing, the IMO recapitulated that it stays the one group to have adopted energy-efficiency measures which can be legally binding throughout a whole world trade and relevant to all international locations.

“Mandatory energy efficiency standards for new ships, and mandatory operational measures to reduce emissions from existing ships, entered into force under an existing international convention (MARPOL Annex VI) in 2013. By 2025, all new ships will be 30% more energy efficient than those built last year. This is more than a target, it is a legal requirement, and demonstrates that IMO is the correct and only forum to identify solutions and an appropriate pathway for international shipping to de-carbonize with the rest of the globe,” the IMO stated within the briefing.

The IMO’s briefing added:

Continuing efforts will embody improvement of a worldwide information assortment system for ship’s gas consumption to be mentioned intimately on the subsequent assembly of IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee in 2016, additional consideration of a total-sector discount goal for GHG emissions from worldwide transport as proposed by the Marshall Islands in 2015, and continued investigation of further mechanisms for ships to assist the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
During COP21, IMO offered an replace of its work to deal with GHG emissions from bunker fuels used for worldwide transport. Specifically, IMO reported on its work on additional growing tips to assist the uniform implementation of the rules on energy-efficiency for ships; and on its efforts with regard to technical co-operation and capacity-building to make sure efficient implementation and enforcement of the aforementioned new rules worldwide and, importantly, actions to assist promotion of technical co-operation and switch of expertise regarding the advance of vitality effectivity of ships.
At IMO, the Governments of the world come collectively to develop the regulatory framework for worldwide transport which types the premise for funding choices. There is a transparent crucial now for IMO’s Member States to rise to the problem set by the Paris Agreement. Secretary-General Sekimizu stated, “I now encourage Governments to bring the spirit of the Paris Agreement to IMO and come forward with new, creative proposals and to approach them in a constructive and cooperative manner.”

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